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Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins was on Susan Arbetter’s Capitol Pressroom earlier Friday and she rebutted GOP Leader Dean Skelos’ contention that a Democratic-led Senate, which could be in place in January due to the IDC’s change in loyalties, would be bad for upstate.

She noted that she is from Westchester County, not New York City and she also threw cold water on the idea that an IDC/Democratic coalition might not work due to lingering hard feelings and charges that the IDC, or Independent Democratic Conference led by Jeff Klein, betrayed the Dems when they joined forces with the GOP giving them the effective majority.

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First, the Downstate politicians just don’t get where Downstate really ends, and Upstate begins. You see Ms. Stewart-Cousins, anything from the northern boundary of Albany County, southward through the Hudson Valley, and east of I-87, plus Orange, Ulster and Sullivan Counties, are Downstate, not Upstate. Of course, as more and more NYC metro area residents move north and west, dependent on the concentration of these transplants, are becoming more Downstate than Upstate. And one more, that aberration, Tompkins County.
Secondly, you underestimate the IDC, as they hold all the cards, until one party or the other wins a pure majority, on their own. The IDC own the GOP, the Dems, and much to his chagrin, King Kash Kuomo. No grudges, how amusing.

OK, for the “big picture”, when was the last time you were in Buffalo?, or Jamestown?; or Watertown, Plattsburgh, Elmira, Rochester, taken a look at what’s left of the City of Niagara Falls – the one before you cross the border, Binghamton or Syracuse. Westchester does not count as “Upstate America”.

Our government would be in much better shape if people actually progressed to positions of power based on their own ability and merit instead of being popped up by government sponsored discrimination (aka affirmative-action).

Upstate should be happy if the Dems take the Senate back because the last time the Dems had control of the Senate, Assembly and Gov they increased taxes and created the GEA. The GEA disproportionately effects upstate schools. The Senate Republicans have been slowly chipping away at the GEA but if the Dems take control the effort to restore the GEA will come to an end as it is does not effect downstate like it does upstate. More upstate prisons will be closed causing the lose of even more jobs for upstate communities.

I hope NYSUT remembers who created the GEA and who has been trying to eliminate it.

Stewart Cosins is cut from the same cloth/philosophies as Malcolm Smith. A democratic leadership in the senate would be a big enough mistake for all the working taxpayers, a senate led by her would be just like the disatrous senate from a few years ago. Anyone above the poverty level had better run to the nearest exit.

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